A Million Ways To Die In The West
Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson
Director Seth MacFarlane
Review Ray Chan
Family Guy and Ted creator Seth MacFarlane gives us Blazing Saddles for Generation Y, a Western parody complete with all the trimmings of the director’s trademark digressions, pop culture references and low-brow humour.
Laced with enough quips to make this movie outrageously R-rated, there are nevertheless enough laughs in it to ensure they don’t make for a bad one.
The plot concerns MacFarlane’s sheep farmer Albert, dumped by girlfriend Louise (Seyfried) after he cowardly escaped a gunfight.
Liam Neeson is a violent gangster searching for gold, and Charlize Theron’s gunslinger Anna turns up to teach Albert how to shoot just in time for the big showdown with arch nemesis Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), who has wooed Louise over.
The best stuff is when McFarlane plays up the ridiculous aspects of the genre, emulating Mel Brooks at his sledgehammer best.
At some points it’s like a big-budget comedy night set in the desert – the hilarious moustache barn dance is a delight – with MacFarlane’s delivery a cross between improv and stand-up comedy.
Playing the straight man to a cavalcade of others, his liberal use of expletives in a Victorian setting is solidly funny.
Seyfried and Theron aren’t given many knee-slappers, so the closest of the main cast to a full comic talent is Sarah Silverman as a prostitute who, despite entertaining others in the course of her profession, refuses to sleep with her boyfriend until they’re married.
When you get right down to it though, most of the jokes don’t mesh with the visual and tonal aesthetic.
MacFarlane is obviously being deliberately anachronistic, but a lot of the gags feel out of place or juvenile and unpleasant (laxatives and sheep appendages, for example).
At two hours, the movie may be considered too long. Indeed, a dream sequence in the last 15 minutes seems included just for cheap laughs and feels totally out of place, and could easily have been edited out.
Yet despite all of the obvious flaws, there are enough genuine chuckles and chortles to keep viewers entertained, but only if they’re not of a sensitive disposition.
#millionwaystodie
